Biography

Steven Erikson was born in Toronto, Canada, grew up in Winnipeg, lived in the UK with his wife and son, and has since returned to Canada. He is an anthropologist and archaeologist by training and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Works

His first fantasy novel, Gardens of the Moon (1999), constitutes the first of ten projected volumes of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. His style of writing tends towards complex plots with multiple point-of-view characters. The Malazan world was devised by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, initially as a setting for a role-playing game. Gardens of the Moon began as a movie script but evolved into a novel, which Erikson completed in 1991-92 but failed to sell.

In the late 1990s, Bantam UK bought Gardens of the Moon and requested that Erikson write additional books in the same series. Using the history of the world created by himself and Esslemont as a guide, he mapped out the series of ten novels. The rights to the Malazan Book of the Fallen were sold for approximately £500,000, among the "largest fees ever paid for a fantasy series.

Erikson has stated explicitly that he enjoys playing with and overturning the conventions of fantasy, presenting characters that violate the stereotypes associated with their roles, an obvious point being the insightful and murderous barbarian Karsa Orlong. He deliberately began the Malazan Book of the Fallen series in the midst of an ongoing story rather than beginning with a more conventional opening.